STM Structure Determination of Adenine Bilayers by Moiré Interpretation.pdfVIP

phys. stat. sol. (a) 187, No. 1, 171–176 (2001) STM Structure Determination of Adenine Bilayers by Moire Interpretation ´ 1 M. M. Reiter, F. Jamitzky, F. Trixler, and W. M. Heckl ) Institut fu¨ r Kristallographie und Angewandte Mineralogie, Ludwig Maximilians Universita¨t Mu¨ nchen, Theresienstr. 41, D-80333 Mu¨ nchen, Germany (Received March 9, 2001; accepted July 12, 2001) Subject classification :68.37.Ef; 68.43.Fg; 68.43.Hn; S5; S12 Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) has been performed in air at room temperature on bilayers of the nucleic acid base adenine, adsorbed to a graphite surface following evaporation of saturated aqueous solutions. Our results indicate that the upper layer of the bilayer structure shows a struc- tural change compared to the layer adsorbed directly to the graphite. The upper layer has a slightly larger unit cell, and is slightly sheared and rotated with respect to the layer directly ad- sorbed to the substrate. We can interpret these observations in terms of a model of rows of the adsorbate molecules stabilised by intermolecular hydrogen bonds. 1. Introduction The application of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) [1] has proven particularly well suited to study the molecular arrangement of close-packed adsorbate structures physisorbed on the surfaces of inert layered compounds such as graphite. Relevant ex- amples include cyclic aromatic compounds [1], long chain alkane derivatives [2] and cyanobiphenyl liquid crystal derivatives [3, 4]. The physisorption of the purine base adenine (6-aminopurine) onto solid surfaces has first